Secretary of State John Kerry has called Sri Lanka's president to urge that elections being held Thursday be free from violence and intimidation.
Kerry spoke by telephone Tuesday night with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who faces a fierce political battle to win a third term in office against a one-time ally

Leader of the New Sama Samaja Party, Dr. Wickramabahu Karunaratne in a recent statement presented, the Tamil National Alliance has decided to support Maithree. They said finally “We therefore call on all citizens to turn out in great numbers and defeat the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime by casting their vote in favor of the Common Opposition Candidate Maithripala Sirisena and the Swan symbol.” That is a clear and hard statement against a fascist styled ruler who resorts to unpredictable threats and violence. In coming to this decision they have observed that the values of democracy, good governance and rule of law have suffered unprecedentedly under the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime.

The conditions complying to the defeat of Mahinda has been already established. The hostility which started from lower, middle class, higher society, urban has already completed spreading to the village level. The popularity of Mahinda has befallen among the public sector of the permanent supporters of the UPFA. It was reported about 65% of majority votes of the security forces, teachers, different professions of the public sector has been possessed by Maithree.

Over a dinner of rice-flour pancakes with his trusted health minister one evening in November, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa observed with a grin that there would be no serious candidate to challenge him in the coming presidential election.
Little did Rajapaksa know then that the man who would stand in his way of winning an unprecedented third term as president of this Indian Ocean island nation was right beside him.